Almost Legal

Our parking spot at "Rainbow's End"

It's interesting that in spite of all the blogs Mark has perused praising the ease of becoming a Texan, we have yet to experience that phenomenon. We arrived Monday thinking that we would be able to breeze into a Licensing office, apply, take (and pass) our test and get our road test over with by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest. Yeah...no.

The application was indeed a breeze and we got our class C license without a hitch. Then we discussed applying for the CDL (Commercial Driver License), which the lovely Department of Public Safety agent initiated for us. Then came the test.

I had gone online and taken the practice test a few days before, which I passed just fine, so ... who needs to study?! With all the confidence in the world, I sat down at the computer and got started. Question after question asked me ridiculous things like, "When disabled at the side of a two lane road, at what distances should you place your flares or flags (complimentary picture included)?...This, this, or that?" And, "What color are the clearance lights on the front of a vehicle? Red, White, Amber, Blue?" Or, "All vehicles built after the following dates must be equipped with turn signals. 1970, 1959, 1948, 2004?" Who can be expected to know stuff like THAT?!

Needless to say, I failed. Mark, who had spent all day studying the manual, also failed.

But, all is not lost. We had two more chances, she said, "Come back tomorrow."

So, as of yesterday, we found ourselves in a motor home we're not legally licensed to drive. Mark picked up his computer and buried himself in the manual. I can't be sure, but it's possible that he read all 178 pages of it, in addition to taking a 130 question practice exam. I don't think he slept very much last night. My plan was slightly different. Maybe we don't have to have a CDL at all, I reasoned. After all, there is a sentence in the CDL handbook that sounds very much like, "RVs for personal use are exempt." I would call them in the morning and find out exactly what that meant. Then and only then would I resort to something as drastic as studying the handbook.

Next morning I called. Yes we're exempt, but not really...only sort of exempt. We don't have to know the whole CDL handbook, only "Section 14." And, yes, we do have to take a road test.

Well, that's not too bad. Section 14 was about fifteen pages, with lots of pictures. I printed it off and we both read through it and reviewed it again before returning for our second try. It's amazing how much easier a test is when you actually know the material.

And yes, we both passed. Now the only thing left to do is take the road test. Mark was worried about things like mud flaps and emergency roadside reflective triangles (neither of which, it turns out, we're required to have). So he put in a call to an RV service center about the mud flaps and we drove over to Walmart to see if they had any reflective triangles in their automotive department. With us, we had a large zipper envelope in which was all the documentation we had put together to get our licenses. It contained our passports, our Social Security cards, the title to the coach, insurance and registration documents on both vehicles and our CDL paperwork. When we left Walmart, it was nowhere to be found. By this time, Mark was a frazzled mess from all the stress of trying to pass the exam and now having lost every important document we own. We searched everywhere in the car to no avail, and then returned to Walmart to see if it was still in the cart we left in the cart rack. It wasn't. Mark went into the store and asked at Customer Service if it had been turned in. It hadn't.

"Be anxious for nothing, but in all things, by prayer and supplication, make your requests known unto God. And the peace that passes understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7

No time to cook. Dinner at "Shrimp Boat Manny's"

This was the passage that was swirling around in my head, and had been since yesterday. My prayer and supplication was that we would recover our important documents. The only thing left to do now was to trust our good God, go home, and wait. Mark left his phone number with Walmart and we drove home. No sooner had we arrived home than Mark got a message on his phone that the envelope had been located. All I can say is, Praise God!... and Thank You to all the good people at the Livingston Walmart.

Our last task now is to take the road test. We had to make that appointment online. The soonest available appointment within 200 miles was for next week. That won't work. We have to be back in Minnesota next week to install our basement air. We discussed the possibility of coming back to Texas yet a third time once the air conditioner was done, but that idea grated badly on our sensibilities. There had to be another solution. So we started looking at testing centers in northern Texas that we might be able to stop at on our way to Minnesota. Sure enough, he found an available appointment for Friday morning in the little town of Haskell. They had only one slot, so Mark will take the test, I will get a CDL "permit" that allows me to drive the coach with a licensed driver in the passenger's seat. By the next time we're in Texas, I should have had enough practice to be able to pass the road test with my eyes closed...well, not literally.

Thursday's potential route

Tomorrow morning we pack up again and hit the road. We'll stop for the night at a nearby Walmart, and by Friday we should finally be legit.

What a week! At some point, our retirement will start to feel more like a vacation and less like work...I just know it.